Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby AUS season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nHowever, McCaffrey has used the opportunity to freshen up his side, with seven academy players and Shute Shield stars included.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a little bashed up, [it\u2019s a] six-day turnaround with travel to Perth,\u201d McCaffrey said to rugby.com.au.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week we\u2019ve just tried to freshen up the lads, and the new combos that have come in for this game, we\u2019re trying to give them the best opportunity to play come Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t really talk about the result [last week], we talked more about how we were disappointed with the way we played. We pride ourselves on competing for every little moment over 80 minutes, and we didn\u2019t do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a little bit of complacency in the group after winning the first two games really comfortably, and knowing we were in a grand final. Unfortunately for a young group, that\u2019s part of the learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, if you don\u2019t bring a level of intensity and physicality to a game of rugby, you\u2019re not going to get the desired result.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing I said to the boys in the sheds is, you learn more after a loss than a win, and I\u2019m sure the expected level of intensity, competition, effort areas, I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll be there [tomorrow].\u201d<\/p>\n
While the head coach believes his side will be better for learning, he expects the Force to offer a significant challenge, boasting the likes of several established Super Rugby players and Wallabies.<\/p>\n
However, that offers a great opportunity for the men in sky blue, who were right in the contest for all of last week.<\/p>\n
The Waratahs have also been in this position before, prevailing 33-26 in last year\u2019s final against the Force in Wanneroo.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to get to a point as a team where you don\u2019t have to have those [complacent] moments, but they are a young group – this is the highest level,\u201d McCaffrey added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of experience at the next level, the Force have that in bucketloads compared to what we have this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome opportunity for young guys to test themselves at this next level, and although we don\u2019t have the Super Rugby and international experience like the Force do, I know we\u2019ve got a huge amount of hunger and desire to compete.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we were massive underdogs going to Perth, we had a young group, showed a huge amount of fight, and won after the bell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve talked about that experience [this week], how the desire to compete can surprise more experienced teams, and I\u2019m a big believer that finals games are won by the team that wants it the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a really young group of academy players and Shute Shield players that are really hungry to win a game of footy and win a trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Michael Cheika set to come into Daceyville in 2027, McCaffrey believes that a second Super Rugby AUS title would be huge to start pre-season preparations off on the front foot, and with good talent vying for positions, could prove pivotal in expanding the side\u2019s depth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is we make the Waratahs into a team where winning is a habit,\u201d McCaffrey added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where you\u2019re playing, what competition, if you are pulling on a Waratah jersey, we\u2019ve got to make winning a habit again. This competition has been a good opportunity to see young guys grow and build belief in their talent and ability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make the Waratahs into a successful, winning team. Winning on Saturday helps contribute to bringing a winning culture back to the Waratahs, and hopefully it\u2019s a starting point for a successful 2027 with Super Rugby Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW Waratahs depart for Perth on Friday to face the Western Force at Scotch College in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,32951,760,85,69535],"class_list":["post-912865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nsw-waratahs","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby-aus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}